State supreme court rules that child rapist had right to naked photos of children

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The Enterprise, Brockton, MA

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Posted Jul. 9, 2014 at 10:43 AM
Updated Jul 9, 2014 at 2:04 PM

Posted Jul. 9, 2014 at 10:43 AM
Updated Jul 9, 2014 at 2:04 PM

» Social News

BOSTON -- The state's highest court has upheld the dismissal of child pornography charges against a rapist prosecuted over photos from National Geographic, a textbook and a catalog from a nudist colony.

The Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday unanimously struck down the indictment of John Rex of Chelmsford, who is serving time for child rape, over seven grainy black-and-white photocopies found in his footlocker.

The court said the photos of naked children seized from Rex's cell at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Norfolk in 2011 are not lewd and are protected by the First Amendment.

A statement from Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey called the decision "an unfortunate departure from federal case law." The statement cited a 2013 decision that manipulating an otherwise inoffensive image by cropping it, as Rex did, may be illegal.

"A Norfolk County Grand Jury found that the images possessed by Rex were lewd, and the case law prior to this suggested strongly that decision was appropriately made by a jury of citizens," the statement said.